The metabolic response of the Bradypus sloth to temperature
| Autor: | Rebecca N. Cliffe, Judy A. Avey-Arroyo, Daniel Mindich, Rory P. Wilson, David M. Scantlebury, Sarah J. Kennedy |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Hibernation Zoology lcsh:Medicine Arboreal folivore Metabolic rate 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 03 medical and health sciences Metabolic depression Sloth Bradypus biology.animal Energetics Homeothermy biology General Neuroscience lcsh:R General Medicine Torpor 030104 developmental biology Poikilotherm Aestivation Mammal General Agricultural and Biological Sciences |
| Zdroj: | PeerJ, Vol 6, p e5600 (2018) Cliffe, R N, Scantlebury, D, Kennedy, S J, Avey-Arroyo, J, Mindich, D & Wilson, R 2018, ' The metabolic response of the Bradypus sloth to temperature ', PeerJ, vol. 6, e5600 . https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5600 |
| DOI: | 10.7717/peerj.5600 |
| Popis: | Poikilotherms and homeotherms have different, well-defined metabolic responses to ambient temperature (Ta), but both groups have high power costs at high temperatures. Sloths (Bradypus) are critically limited by rates of energy acquisition and it has previously been suggested that their unusual departure from homeothermy mitigates the associated costs. No studies, however, have examined how sloth body temperature and metabolic rate vary withTa. Here we measured the oxygen consumption (VO2) of eight brown-throated sloths (B. variegatus) at variableTa’s and found that VO2indeed varied in an unusual manner with what appeared to be a reversal of the standard homeotherm pattern. Sloth VO2increased withTa, peaking in a metabolic plateau (nominal ‘thermally-active zone’ (TAZ)) before decreasing again at higherTavalues. We suggest that this pattern enables sloths to minimise energy expenditure over a wide range of conditions, which is likely to be crucial for survival in an animal that operates under severe energetic constraints. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of a mammal provisionally invoking metabolic depression in response to increasingTa’s, without entering into a state of torpor, aestivation or hibernation. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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